Musing on the Japanese-American internment camps, and the (much smaller) number of German- and Italian-Americans also interned, a thought occurs: What would've had to happen, or gone differently, for the latter two populations to face a dragnet similar to that endured by the former? Race was clearly the biggest factor behind the J-A internment, given longtime anti-Asian bias on the West Coast and with Pearl Harbor and the (imagined) threat of sabotage as pretexts. This wasn't nearly as prevalent with regards to people of German or Italian descent (although bias against immigrants per se, and "less white" Italians in particular, certainly still existed), and the populations were much different (120K Japanese, 695K Italians, and 1.2 million Germans, 5-6 million more claiming one or two native German parents in 1940), which meant the U.S. gov't walked a lot softer on the latter two given the bureaucratic, logistical and political nightmares internment on the J-A level would have brought.
So what events would need to take place, or be altered, to lead to the U.S. widening its G-A and I-A internment programs, to the scope of the J-A program or perhaps beyond? And what would this have meant for that program, or the war in the Pacific? The best PODs coming to mind right now are:
1. A wider, open naval war with Germany alone, or the German-Italian part of the Axis, after the Greer Incident ends in that ship's sinking; the Kearny and the Reuben James would be sunk as part of this, raising tensions even higher.
2. The FBI fails to break the Duquesne Spy Ring, or only partially succeeds, allowing the Nazis to maintain an espionage network in the U.S. that eventually racks up some impressive intelligence coups.
3. An earlier or just more successful Operation Pastorius, leading to more such sabotage efforts and another major rise in public/military paranoia.
Any thoughts?
So what events would need to take place, or be altered, to lead to the U.S. widening its G-A and I-A internment programs, to the scope of the J-A program or perhaps beyond? And what would this have meant for that program, or the war in the Pacific? The best PODs coming to mind right now are:
1. A wider, open naval war with Germany alone, or the German-Italian part of the Axis, after the Greer Incident ends in that ship's sinking; the Kearny and the Reuben James would be sunk as part of this, raising tensions even higher.
2. The FBI fails to break the Duquesne Spy Ring, or only partially succeeds, allowing the Nazis to maintain an espionage network in the U.S. that eventually racks up some impressive intelligence coups.
3. An earlier or just more successful Operation Pastorius, leading to more such sabotage efforts and another major rise in public/military paranoia.
Any thoughts?